Bald eagle nests now number more than 250 across
Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which reported
that 252 eagle nests have been confirmed throughout the state. Nesting eagles
are present in 56 of the state's 67 counties.

Just 30 years ago, there were only three pairs of nesting
bald eagles in the state, all in Crawford County in the northwestern corner of
the state. The bald eagle population in the continental U.S. had been decimated
by the effects of water pollution, persecution and compromised nest success
caused by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT.

Then, in 1983, the commission launched what would become a
seven-year bald eagle restoration program. The agency, as part of a federal
restoration initiative, sent employees to Saskatchewan to obtain eaglets from
wild nests.

Initially, 12 seven-week-old eaglets were taken from nests
in Canada's Churchill River Valley and brought to specially constructed towers
at two sites, Haldeman Island on the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg and Shohola
Lake in Pike County. There the birds
were "hacked," a process by which the eaglets essentially are raised by humans,
but without knowing it, then released gradually into the wild.

In all, 88 bald eaglets from Canada were released from the
sites as part of the program, which was funded in part by the Richard King
Mellon Foundation of Pittsburgh and the federal Endangered Species Fund.

The announcement of the 2013 tally quoted commission
Executive Director Carl Roe: "We're to the point in Pennsylvania where the bald
eagle's success is something that's expected. Year after year, their numbers
grow. Year after year, their range grows broader. It truly is a remarkable
story. And remarkably, it's a true story, and one that continually builds up to
a better and better ending."

Patti Barber, a biologist with the commission's Endangered
and Nongame Birds section, said the mid-year update on nests provides a good
indicator of how bald eagles are doing statewide, but it's a preliminary number
and additional nests typically are confirmed as the year goes on.

For example, last year 206 nests were reported
preliminarily, but the year-end total was 237 statewide. It was a showing
similar to 2011, when the preliminary total of 203 nests increased to 217 by
year's end.

Barber noted, "Our tally was 249 just a week or two ago, and
three more were reported since that time, so I'd be surprised if the
preliminary number doesn't grow."